Speaking at a memorial ceremony for the 134 children killed in a Taliban attack on a Pakistani school a year ago, Yousafzai condemned the leading Republican presidential contender's divisive language while making a plea for greater understanding.

"Well, that's really tragic that you hear these comments which are full of hatred, full of this ideology of being discriminative towards others," she said. Her father also criticized Trump -- whose polarizing comments came after a Muslim couple killed 14 people at a San Bernardino clinic for individuals with developmental disabilities -- saying, "it will be very unfair, very unjust that we associate 1.6 billion [the number of Muslims worldwide] with a few terrorist organizations."

In keeping with her life calling, Yousafzai said that if we want to stop terror attacks like the one in California or the Paris massacre that killed 130, we must focus on education. "It's not just needed in Pakistan but across the world," she said. "If we want to end terrorism we need to bring quality education so we defeat the mindset of terrorism mentality and of hatred."

In another interview, she told Channel 4 News that the more people speak out against Islam and Muslims "the more terrorists" we create. "So it’s important that whatever politicians say, whatever the media say, they should be really, really careful about it. If your intention is to stop terrorism, do not try to blame the whole population of Muslims for it because it cannot stop terrorism. It will radicalise more terrorists."